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Rest You Merry

For years, Professor Peter Shandy has been badgered by Jemima Ames, Assistant Librarian and Annual Chairperson, to decorate his campus home for the Grand Illumination which is Balaclava Agricultural College's main fund-raising event. Now he can hold out no longer. Goaded to madness, he buries his small brick house under an avalanche of plastic reindeer, flashing lights, and fake Santa Clauses. Hooks up an amplifier blaring "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth," locks the switches at "on," and escapes to sea on a tramp steamer....

Amazon Customer says:"A classic story - and great for this time of year!"

The Family Vault

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Fatal Frost: A Dewberry Farm Mystery, Book 2

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The Penguin Pool Murder: Hildegarde Withers, Book 1

Although the Stock Market had crashed recently, it was too early for most people to predict that the Great Depression was about to get underway. For 39-year-old spinster schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers, it’s business as usual. And part of her usual business is taking her class for an outing to the aquarium to see the penguins. Instead, she spots the floating corpse of Wall Street broker Gerald Lester and quickly realizes that Inspector Oscar Piper of NYPD Homicide isn’t up to solving this tricky case.

Publisher's Summary

At Balaclava Agricultural College, a kidnapping and pig-napping are followed by murder....

Newlyweds Peter and Helen Shandy are picking out flatware when a pair of gun-toting hooligans burst into the silversmith’s shop, empty the safe, and leave with Helen as their hostage. Although the police recover Helen quickly, her professor husband is badly shaken by the ordeal. Early the next morning, the college’s head of animal husbandry frantically reports another hostage situation in progress. Belinda, the school’s beloved sow, has been kidnapped, and only Peter can bring home the bacon.

There is a possible witness to the pig-napping in Miss Flackley, the farrier, but before she can point Peter towards the vanished porker, she is found dead in the barn’s mash feeder. By the time Peter discovers the link between the two heists, pigs may really fly.

I read the Peter Shandy mysteries around the time they were first published in the late 1970's. The audio books are as entertaining for me now as the books were many years ago.

Even though they experience some rather harrowing events. the Shandy's maintain their composure rather well. They are alarmed, but not panicked. They use their intelligence and logic to solve the mystery puzzle they encounter. They also do it with a good dose of humor.

This story is populated with funny and unique characters. I had a smile on my face most of time I was listening to the story. I often chuckled, and from time to time laughed out loud. This is gentle humor, not at all like the edgy and profane humor that is so prevalent now.

If you are looking for an easy, relaxing story, one that you can listen to while you do chores around the house, this is a good choice.

It's really hard for me to describe how much I love Charlotte MacLeod. Her gentle manner of writing, her wonderful command of the most obscure use of the English language, her ability to plot a mystery, the way she draws characters, the way she uses humour. It's as good as it gets for me. She ranks with Agatha Christie and Elizabeth Peters on my list of mystery writers who's works would accompany me to a desert island.

If you've never been to Balaclava Agricultural College, you've missed a great treat. This is the second visit we can make there after the first in the series "Rest You Merry." Peter Shandy and his new wife Helen have settle down to a pleasant life in the brick house on the Crescent when a terrible omen appears. An upside-down horseshoe is found in the barns. Nothing good can come of this. And, of course, the terrible omen is followed by a series of tragic events, not the least of which is the kidnapping of the college's prize pig.

Peter and Helen become embroiled in the mysteries invading their comfy little world and great fun for the reader ensues. This is as far away from hard-boiled as a mystery can get. This is clever and witty. It's as cozy and comfortable as my warm fuzzy fleece socks. It's pure pleasure for those who like their mysteries without blood and gore. Pure pleasure, pure silliness and, in my opinion, pure genius.